Dengue fever (also known as “breakbone fever”!) is a mosquito-caused illness. Those with dengue exhibit disease symptoms which include a sudden onset of fever, severe headaches, eye, joint, and muscle pain, and a rash. The rash typically appears on the hands, arms, legs and feet within 3-4 days after fever begins. Minor bleeding problems can also … Read more
If, in a future moment of weakness, I were to ever suggest that I had seen it all in diving, please slap me and bring me back to earth. I should know by now that divers are capable of the most extraordinary behavior that can defy logic, nature, and occasionally the laws of physics. Some … Read more
Oxygen is the most basic life support system our bodies employ, and yet also has the capacity to cause great harm. Keller (1946) has called oxygen “The Princess of Gases. She is beautiful but has to be handled with special care”. We cannot live without it, but in prolonged breathing exposures or in deep depths … Read more
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE There have been numerous articles written on the subjects of inert gas narcosis and attendant depth limitations. Many have re-hashed old formulas relating the preposterous “Martini’s Law” etc. and sanctimonious admonitions against any sport diving below 130 fsw. The authors of these materials are motivated by the best of intentions: diving safety. … Read more
My mother always insisted that we children waited an hour before swimming after eating in case we got the cramp. As a diver, I often ate a hearty meal immediately before diving without, I believed, ill effect. Cramp, though uncomfortable, doesn’t cause a diver to drown. During my long career as a diving journalist, I … Read more
